Stroke order
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stroke order (Chinese: 筆順 bǐshùn; Japanese: 筆順 hitsujun or 書き順 kaki-jun) refers to the way in which Chinese characters are written. A stroke is a movement of the writing instrument, in modern times most commonly a pen, pencil, or writing brush. "Stroke order" can refer both to the numerical order in which the strokes of a given character are written and to the direction in which the writing instrument must move in producing a particular stroke.
Chinese characters are used in various forms in modern Chinese languages, Japanese, and, in South Korea, for Korean. They are known as hànzì in Mandarin, kanji in Japanese, and hanja or hanmun in Korean.
It is a common misconception that Chinese characters were originally encarved; in fact, Chinese characters are believed to have originally been brush-written on perishable materials such as bamboo or wood slats, which could then be bound together like Venetian blinds, and rolled for storage. Examples of such books have been found dating to the late Zhou dynasty.
Although it would take over a thousand years for uniform, defined forms for each character to appear, now, as then, each character comprises a number of strokes which must be written in a prescribed order.
The precise number of Chinese characters in existence is disputed. The Japanese "Daikanwa Jiten", a modern comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, includes fifty thousand, and more recently published Chinese dictionaries have included more than eighty thousand, although whether these are all unique characters or merely obscure variant forms is debated. Regardless of the total number, literacy in Chinese requires knowledge of three to five thousand characters, and Japanese two to three thousand characters.
The number of strokes per character for most characters is between one and thirty, but the number of strokes in some obscure characters can reach as many as seventy. In the twentieth century, simplification of Chinese characters took place in mainland China, greatly reducing the number of strokes in some characters, and a similar but more moderate simplification also took place in Japan. The basic rules of stroke order, however, remained the same.
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[edit] Development of rules

The rules for stroke order evolved to facilitate vertical writing, to maximize ease of writing and reading, to aid in producing uniform characters, and — since a person who has learned the rules can infer the stroke order of most characters — to ease the process of learning to write. They were also influenced by the highly cursive Grass Script style of calligraphy.
While children must learn and use correct stroke order in school, adults may ignore or forget the normalised stroke order for certain characters, or develop idiosyncratic ways of writing. While this is rarely a problem in day-to-day writing, in calligraphy, stroke order is vital; incorrectly ordered or written strokes can produce a visually unappealing or, occasionally, incorrect character, particularly in styles such as Grass Script, in which individual strokes are often combined in fluid motions without lifting the brush from the paper.
The Eight Principles of Yong (永字八法 Pinyin: yǒngzì bā fǎ; Japanese: eiji happō; Korean: 영자팔법, yeongjapalbeop, yŏngjap'albŏp) uses the single character 永, meaning "eternity", to teach the eight most basic strokes.
[edit] Link between the stroke order and the graph
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- Ancient China —
In archaic China, the Jiǎgǔwén characters (Oracle script), carved on ox scapula and tortoise plastrons (see Oracle bones) showed no indication of stroke order. The graph of each semantic meaning such as "Man" or "Horse" show huge variations depending of which oracle bones one looks at, and the "stroke order" was probably the stroke order of the local pyromantic divin.
With the development of Jīnwén and Dàzhuàn (Bronzeware script and Large Seal Script) we continue to see "cursive" signs which also do not indicate a clear a stroke order. Moreover, it is evident that even as late as the development of Large seal (Dàzhuàn) style, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters.
- Imperial China —
In Imperial China, the graphs on the old steles —some being as far as 2,200 years old (200 BC) and in Xiaozhuan style— start to reveal tiny indications of the stroke order of the time.
About 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first to conquer all China, impose several reforms, in which the Li Si's Characters uniformisation, imposing a set of 3.000 standardized "Xiǎozhuàn" characters. But the style is still not enough "geometrical" to read a stroke order from graphs on steles, and every paper's calligraphies of the time were lost.
The true starting point of the possibility to determine the stroke order of old style is the Lìshū style (Clerical script) which is more geometric and more similar to the current regular style. In theory, by looking the Lìshū style steles' graphs and the exact place of each stroke, we can see an "hierarchisation" of priority between the strokes, which indicate us the stroke order use by the calligrapher or stele sculptors.
The first apparition of Kǎishū style (regular script) —still in use nowadays— more regular and geometric, allows us to read more clearly the hierachisation and so the stroke order use to write on the steles. It is to notice that this analyze show that the stroke order 1,000 years before was close but was not the same that in the end of Imperial China. An other thing is that some graphs in the stele show clearly the stroke order, while current Kǎishū graphs, still using the same stroke order, doesn't show clearly the stroke order. By example, the stroke order of 广 is really clear if we read the Kangxi dictionary of 1716; but if we read a book print in 2007, the official stroke order (the same) will not appear clearly (see here). The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while current stroke order is still exactly the same, according to old style.
The official shape of every radical and characters continue to move along history. It is also important to note that "graph" and "stroke order" are closely linked.
- Cursives styles and hand-written styles —
Cursive styles such Xíngshū (semi-cursive or running script) and Cǎoshū (cursive or grass script) show even more their stroke order: each move made by the writing tool is finally visible. But it is important to notice that these two cursive styles are purely artistic, have no regular stroke order, and, in fact, play with such variations of the stroke order to produce variable graphic effects.
Then, it is also to notice that natives writers, with the need to write faster in their common life, set up their own stroke order rules for their own use, with some tiny differences with the official stroke order teach in school. Despite being more convenient for the writer to set up his own stroke order and most convenient way of writing, such hand-written characters and texts frequently confuse other readers, especially the non-native users. A frequently use solution is to write CJK characters fast (in cursive styles) but with the correct stroke order, which will allow others to read hand-written characters more easily, according to the fact that the cursive characters will have an recognizable expected shape.
[edit] Three national schools of stroke order
While the majority of characters are written in exactly the same stroke order everywhere because their shape clearly dictates a particular order, the "official" stroke order of CJK characters varies from country to country. This is largely because calligraphic styles evolved differently in Imperial China, Modern and Communist China, Japan, and Korea.
- Traditional stroke order: Imperial China, ROC in China from 1911 to 1949, modern Taiwan and Hong Kong. This system of stroke order follows traditional Chinese calligraphy and Chinese Grass Style.
- Japanese stroke order: Modern Japan and Korea. This stroke order follows the traditions of Japanese calligraphy and Japanese Grass Style. The occupation of Korea by Japan (1895-1945), and their close intellectual and artistic exchanges meant that they developed similar calligraphies and now follow the same stroke order. Some Japanese kanji were reformed in 1946.
- Modern stroke order: Modern Mainland China (PRC). The Chinese government reformed the Chinese character set in 1956, and also reformed the stroke order of some characters. A notable "innovation" of this stroke order reform was the conception of a "horizontal writing" stroke order, to facilitate horizontal writing. Some examples of stroke order simplifications are the radicals 廴,戈,方,母,瓦,癶,禸,舟,辶,阝,骨,and 鬼.
Traditional stroke order, which developed in texts written from top to bottom. Ancient China, current Taiwan. |
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Modern stroke order, adapted for horizontal writing. PRC, post-1956 reform. |
[edit] Basic rules of stroke order
1. Write from left to right, and from top to bottom
As a general rule, characters are written from left to right, and from top to bottom. For example, among the first characters usually learned is the number one, which is written with a single horizontal line: 一. This character has one stroke which is written from left to right.
The character for "two" has two strokes: 二. In this case, both are written from left to right, but the top stroke is written first. The character for "three" has three strokes: 三. Each stroke is written from left to right, starting with the uppermost stroke:
This rule applies also to more complex characters. For example, 校 can be divided into two. The entire left side (木) is written before the right side (交). There are some exceptions to this rule, mainly occurring when the right side of a character has a lower enclosure (see below), for example 誕 and 健. In this case, the left side is written first, followed by the right side, and finally the lower enclosure.
When there are upper and lower components, the upper components are written first, then the lower components, as in 品 and 襲.
When strokes cross, horizontal strokes are usually written before vertical strokes: the character for "ten," 十, has two strokes. The horizontal stroke 一 is written first, followed by the vertical stroke → 十.
Vertical strokes that "cut" through a character are written after the horizontal strokes they cut through, as in 書 and 筆.
Horizontal strokes that cut through a character are written last, as in 母 and 海.
4. Diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right
Right-to-left diagonals (ノ) are written before left-to-right diagonals (乀): 文.
5. Centre verticals before outside "wings"
Vertical centre strokes are written before vertical or diagonal outside strokes; left outside strokes are written before right outside strokes: 小 and 水.
Outside enclosing strokes are written before inside strokes; bottom strokes are written last: 日 and 口. This applies also to characters that have no bottom stroke, such as 同 and 月.
7. Left vertical before enclosing
Left vertical strokes are written before enclosing strokes. In the following two examples, the leftmost vertical stroke (|) is written first, followed by the uppermost and rightmost lines (┐) (which are written as one stroke): 日 and 口.
8. Bottom enclosing strokes last
Bottom enclosing strokes are always written last: 道, 週, 画.
9. Dots and minor strokes last
Minor strokes are usually written last, as the small "dot" in the following: 玉.
[edit] Basic and compound strokes
There are some thirty distinct types of strokes recognized in Chinese characters, some of which are compound strokes (that is, single strokes comprising more than one movement of the writing instrument). Many of these have no agreed-upon name.
Each single stroke includes all the motions necessary to produce a given part of a character before lifting the writing instrument from the writing surface; thus, a single stroke may produce more than one line.
Name (Char, pinyin) |
Stroke |
Translation of Chinese name |
Additional description |
---|---|---|---|
Basic strokes | |||
點 diǎn | ⼂ | "Dot" | Tiny dash |
横 héng | ⼀ | "Horizontal" | Rightward stroke |
豎 shù | ⼁ | "Vertical" | Downward stroke |
提 tí | ㇀ | "Rise" | Flick up and rightwards |
捺 nà | ㇏ | "Press down" | Falling rightwards (fattening at the bottom) |
撇 piě | ⼃ | "Throw away" | Falling leftwards (with slight curve) |
Combining strokes | |||
折 zhé | n/a | "Break" | Usually 90° turn, going down or going right only. |
鉤 gōu | n/a | "Hook" | Appended to other strokes, suddenly going down or going left only. |
彎 wān | n/a | "Bend" | Usually concave on the left |
斜 xié | n/a | "Slant" | Usually concave on the right |
The "dot" is rarely a real dot. Instead it usually takes the shape of a very small line pointing in one of several directions, and may be long enough to be confused with other strokes.
Certain strokes (such as zhé and gōu, the "hook" and "break") never occur alone, but always in compound strokes. Thus, they are not in themselves individual strokes.
The character for "eternity" shown at right demonstrates some of these compound strokes. The centre line is a compound stroke that combines three stroke shapes in a single stroke.
[edit] Complex strokes in Unicode
The Unicode "CJK Strokes" range encodes 16 basic strokes, at codepoints U+31C0–31CF (as of Unicode version 4.1):
codepoint | name | Chinese name Trad. (Simp.) | |
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31C0 | ㇀ | CJK STROKE T | 提 |
31C1 | ㇁ | CJK STROKE WG | 彎鈎 (弯钩) |
31C2 | ㇂ | CJK STROKE XG | 斜鈎 (斜钩) |
31C3 | ㇃ | CJK STROKE BXG | 扁斜鈎 (扁斜钩) |
31C4 | ㇄ | CJK STROKE SW | 豎彎 (竖弯) |
31C5 | ㇅ | CJK STROKE HZZ | 橫折折 (横折折) |
31C6 | ㇆ | CJK STROKE HZG | 橫折鈎 (横折钩) |
31C7 | ㇇ | CJK STROKE HP | 橫撇 (横撇) |
31C8 | ㇈ | CJK STROKE HZWG | 橫折彎鈎 (横折弯钩) |
31C9 | ㇉ | CJK STROKE SZWG | 竪折彎鈎 (竖折弯钩) |
31CA | ㇊ | CJK STROKE HZT | 橫折提 (横折提) |
31Cb | ㇋ | CJK STROKE HZZP | 橫折折撇 (横折折撇) |
31CC | ㇌ | CJK STROKE HPWG | 橫撇彎鈎 (横撇弯钩) |
31CD | ㇍ | CJK STROKE HZW | 竪折彎 (竖折弯) |
31CE | ㇎ | CJK STROKE HZZZ | 橫折折折 (横折折折) |
31CF | ㇏ | CJK STROKE N | 捺 |
[edit] References
- Traditional Chinese stroke order
- 常用國字標準字體筆順手冊 by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. Book available online (authoritative work)
- Japanese stroke order
- Hadamitzky, Wolfgang & Mark Spahn. A Handbook of the Japanese Writing System. Charles E. Tuttle Co. ISBN 0-8048-2077-5.
- Henshall, Kenneth G. A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Charles E. Tuttle Co. ISBN 0-8048-2038-4.
- O'Neill, P.G. Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged for Learning and Reference. Weatherhill. ISBN 0-8348-0222-8.
- Pye, Michael The Study of Kanji: A Handbook of Japanese Characters. Hokuseido Press.
- Includes a translation of the Japanese Ministry of Education rules on Kanji stroke order.
- Others
- Keightley, David N. (1978). Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-02969-0
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Links explaning the stroke order.
- Text page Overviewing of Chinese stroke, stroke order, and radicals
- 常用國字標準字體筆順手冊 - Taiwan Ministry of Education's book (authoritative for traditional chinese stroke order)
- Freely available animations or diagrams
- Kanji alive, a free interactive online tool for learning Japanese kanji, featuring 1235 hand-written stroke order animations.
- SODER Project, one thousand Japanese kanji stroke order diagrams, freely downloadable.
- .eon.com.hk, 2 - eStroke, easy to use; traditional, simplified, and Cantonese dialectical characters. Claim to have about 2,000 animations.
- Nice flash - unknown number of animations.
- chine-informations.com - about 100 animations.
- Animated stroke order from USC Chinese Department - about 100 animations.
- hanja.naver.com - 한자사전(漢字辭典) (gif, in Korean)
- CJK stroke order project, Free Wikipedia project making and sharing animations and images showing stroke order according to the 3 ways (Traditional hanzi, Modern hanzi, Japanese kanji).
- Commercial with partial preview
- cchar.com Online query of stroke order animations.
Categories: Calligraphy | Orthography | Chinese characters | Hanja | Kanji | Kana